Design/gaming PC $600-700

[Meteorcity]

Approximate Purchase Date: next few months

Budget Range: 600-700 (including monitor)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: running Adobe suite programs, 3D modeling and rendering programs, gaming

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: any?

Country: US

Parts Preferences: none

Overclocking: probably not


Additional Comments: I'm a freelance designer, i've been using a mac since about 2004 and this would be my first time building a PC and will be primarily for running Adobe programs, working with large graphics files, 3D modeling with various programs, static 3D rendering, but I would like to be able to play games decently. Doesn't have to be able to play the newest and latest games at 100% detail, but I would like to be able to play a fairly new game fairly decently on it. What this means is that (i think) that processing power and cores is most important, ram and video card considerations maybe less important, and i think for storage more is better than faster (don't need an SSD).

It's been so long since I've bought a PC I'm open to any opinions on brands, parts, etc.

Thanks!

 

[kajabla]

Ouch, including monitor? You aren't gonna be able to do that much with this GPU-wise, then.
Do you have any parts at all? A case or HDD, for instance? HDDs are currently very expensive due to Thailand's flooding.
I'm going to leave the CPU and GPU for last.
$140 Acer G235HAbd 23''. Remarkably cheap, and well-reviewed too.
$40 NZXT Source case. Looks the best out of Newegg's cheap stuff to me.
$40 (after rebate, $50 before) Antec Earthwatts 430W PSU. This is high quality.
$100 Windows Home
$100 Hitachi Deskstar 750gb, or a $130 1tb if you feel like you need it.*
Now for the GPU and CPU (and mobo based on those).
You have $280 for the three of them.
$125 X4 960T. 3.0ghz base clock. Overclock it.
$70 Biostar A870U3. Cheapest one out there with the basic goodies (Sata III). Looks good.
$85 for the GPU, but I strongly recommend going up to $95. That's what XFX's 6770 costs after rebate (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150560), and it's quite a big jump up from cards just below it in price.
That'd put you at $710.


*prices on HDDs will fall dramatically in the next year or two, so you'll be able to get a second one later on the cheap to throw all your data on. If you think you'll fill up 750gb in the next year or so, go 1tb.

 

[Meteorcity]

I heard about thailand, I think I'd actually be willing to go for a smaller (500gb maybe?) if it helped me price wise as long as I can add/upgrade later. And if you guys think that i could get a better system by calling 700 the budget for the system sans monitor I might think about that too.

 

[g-unit1111]

What this means is that (i think) that processing power and cores is most important, ram and video card considerations maybe less important, and i think for storage more is better than faster (don't need an SSD).

Having more cores doesn't necessarily mean that your computer is going to run faster. Where it will matter is how efficiently your computer cycles data through GPU, CPU, and RAM. Except for hard core Photoshop and video editing, most Adobe programs do not require a lot of horsepower. In fact where I work we've been able to get by using 775 systems and Photoshop.

I definitely agree about storage - SSDs do come in handy when working with large amounts of data, but when you get right down to it, 64GB is NOT a lot of storage and that's where it gets hard to justify an SSD initially when there's 500GB, 1,2,3+TB hard drives available. Especially if you're going to be burning or sharing any of your data, you will not be able to burn anything once you get all your programs and games installed.You can always add one later on as a logical upgrade for your system.

: I'm a freelance designer, i've been using a mac since about 2004 and this would be my first time building a PC and will be primarily for running Adobe programs, working with large graphics files, 3D modeling with various programs, static 3D rendering, but I would like to be able to play games decently

With that I'm not really sure it can be done for $700 with everything I'll try and see what the lowest I can get is. At any rate this build should give you some ideas:

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 - $59.99
PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX600 - $69.99
Motherboard: Asrock Z68 Extreme 3 Gen 3 - $129.99
CPU: 3.30Ghz Intel Core i5-2500K - $219.99
Fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212 - $25.99
RAM: Kingston Hyper X Blue 1600MHz 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1.65V - $89.99
HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB - $99.99
Optical: LITE ON 24X DVD Burner Bulk OEM - $17.99
Video card: EVGA Geforce GTX 550TI - $119.99
OS: Windows 7 Pro - $139.99
Monitor: Acer 20" 1080p Monitor - $89.99

Total: $1,137.35 ($867 without monitor/keyboard/mouse/OS)

Alternately you could try this build:

Case: Antec 300 Illusion - $55.99
PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX600 - $69.99
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 - $89.99
CPU: 3.5GHz AMD Phenom II X4 970 - $129.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+ - $25.99
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaw X 1600MHz 8GB 1.5V - $29.99
HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200RPM - $99.99
Optical: Lite On 24X DVD Burner - $17.99
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB - $144.99
Keyboard / Mouse: Logitech MK260 - $26.99
OS: Windows 7 Pro - $139.99
Monitor: Acer S1200H 20" 1080p Monitor - $99.99

Total: $933.80